Can you identify the ghost of Traralgon?

The sighting of a wayward ghost by two teenagers in 1968 offers a fascinating insight into a forgotten railway line which ran from Traralgon to Glengarry, then later Toongabbie and Sale.

We love a good ghost story at ABC Gippsland; the Sale Maffra road ghost, the ghost of Constable Duff from Moe and the lady of the lake - stories which often draw our attention to forgotten aspects of Gippsland History. As the office mystic, I have ascertained that Gippsland ghosts seem to like dense fog and moonlit nights, so my ears pricked up when I received a call from Wayne Hinkley about a spooky experience he had in 1968 with his then girlfriend Margie Burnet.

He wanted to invite me to an unusual 45 year road side reunion over an apparition that has haunted him for most of his adult life. Wayne had an incredible memory for every detail of the ghostly image, which I asked him to sketch (above). It sounded like the perfect scene from an old horror movie; two teenage lovebirds driving around the back roads of rural Traralgon on a foggy night parking in Dranes Lane, when suddenly, the terrifying figure of a gaunt man appeared through the windscreen.

Ghost sightings are often passed off as the mere hallucinations of individuals, but the interesting thing about this story was that two people saw it, and they were both sober. Margie explains.

It was 1968, a cold and foggy night in the Latrobe Valley as it is often is in winter.

Wayne and I were returning from Traralgon to where I lived at Glengarry. We were on the Traralgon Glengarry Road when we turned off at Dranes Lane. We crossed the railway line and turned immediately left along a rutted track parallel to the railway line.

We have barely stopped when an apparition appeared from the battering beneath the railway line, no more than 5 or 6 metres away. It glided across in front of the car and disappeared into the fog on our right. Before we had had time to digest this it reappeared from the fog, again directly in front of us; stationary.

A gaunt dark shape in the fog and the moonlight.Frightening, I wanted to get out of there immediately. Wayne had the car moving, the wheels spinning stones flying.

Next day we revisited the site and discovered our man had glided through a barb wire fence, to a lagoon filled with reeds and water obscured from us in the heavy fog the previous night. Wayne was clear headed enough to look longer and harder than my fearful self and gave a pretty good description.

Our man was wearing a three quarter length coat, tailored, buttoned high to the collar with an unusual hat. A big wide brim stovepipe hat with a domed top. He was a damaged man; legs skewed, arms bent as though he had arrived flat from the ground to float. No body movements, no sound, no change of expression on his ashen face.Has anyone else seen this man or can help us identify him?

The mystery continues for Wayne and Margie who thinks that ghost may have been a doctor, a minister or someone in a position of authority, judging by his pre-1930s clothing. They have a few different theories on his demise; that he may have been caught up in the floods which devastated the area in the 1930s, that he was a bushranger, a visiting doctor or minister en route to the goldfields, or connected to the construction of the railway line.

The latter is the most likely theory considering the proximity of the apparition to the Traralgon-Glengarry railway line crossing. The Traralgon to Glengarry railway line (which doesn't exist anymore) was built in 1882 and took 100 workers 12 months to build. At each crossover, a gate house was built by the railway authority next to the railway line. The houses were occupied by a railway worker and his wife who would open and close the gate at the sound of the train whistle.

A gate house was located precisely where the Traralgon ghost was sighted, indicating that the wayward spirit may have had some connection to the Dranes Lane gate house.

The railway line was extended to Toongabbie in 1887 and Sale at a later date.You can find out more about the history of the district in the book Toongabbie, Gippsland: A Gateway to the Walhalla Goldfields by Alan Harding and Roger Ries.

If you can identify the Ghost of Traralgon, date his outfit or offer any other stories on ghosts in the area, I would love to hear from you! abcopen.gippsland@abc.net.au

3
Comments

Rachael Lucas

The ghost of Traralgon looks suspciously like the man standing in front of the train posing for this picture!!! https://open.abc.net.au/explore/67111

andrew

Some people have wonderful imaginations, I'm amazed that ghosts appear from centuries past, people nevr seem to recount stories of ghosts from say the 1980's wearing their white 'Choose Life' shirts.

Rob Ashworth

I think the ghost might get lost if he takes your directions!
The former railway went from Traralgon-Glengarry-Heyfield-Maffra and joined the main line at Stratford. It was closed in sections from the Traralgon end, with the last bit from Maffra-Stratford remaining till 1993. This line never connected to Sale.
The Traralgon-Stratford railway is now the Gippsland Plains Rail Trail.